Times Changed
by reuschysgirl
Summary: Amali is a sheltered girl from HalfCircle Sea Hold who is chosen to go to Brenden Weyr for Hatching. What happens there can only be described as something Amali could never have thought of in a thousand Turns.


"Times Changed"

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"Why, Wingleader T'jax! What did we do to deserve this great honor?" the girl Amali stammered out as the dragonriders of Pern dismounted off their great beasts. Amali openly stared at the dragons. They were so huge! She thought she heard a chuckle, but when she looked over at T'jax he was only smiling grimly, as though the fate of all Pern was on his shoulders. She turned back to the dragons to find that the whirling faceted eyes were all staring at her as though she was some alien. She shuddered. Again, she thought she heard a deep laugh. She carefully retreated away from the brown, bronze, green, and blue dragons to go hide behind the immense hold doors.

"There is a golden queen egg hardening on the Hatching Ground at Benden Weyr. And we are on Search. The Hatching will occur soon." T'jax brushed Amali aside and continued into Half-Circle Sea Hold. Dock Cavern loomed overhead as he bellowed for the sea holder. Sea Holder Yanus ran up and conversed with T'jax in low tones. Soon after Yanus was walking back towards the hold, leaving a very dour wingleader. He was back shortly with all the ladies of the hold from ten to twenty Turns.

"Is that all, Yanus?" T'jax asked, his voice dripping with contempt. There was a better selection at Cove Hold, all the way down in the Southern Continent, he thought.

"Yes, this is all of them. Wait, where's Amali? Amali! Get over here."

"Yes, sir." Amali grudgingly emerged from her hiding place behind the great hold doors to join the hold girls. Her long unkempt auburn hair kept getting in her deep brown, almost bronze, eyes; she looked over to Yanus to see if he had noticed and was rewarded with a look of sheer loathing from him, she simply smiled. She longed to chop her hair off in one piece and brush it day in and day out, but that is what Yanus wants, she thought, and she will not do what he wants. Amali's mother, Yanus' wife, was witnessing the Search and saw what was happening between them and she winced. Although these small acts of rebellion kept peace between the two, she felt like Amali should bend to his wishes.

The ladies were lined up and Amali felt like T'jax was a herdsman about to make a trade at Gather. She couldn't help but giggling when she imagined her older sister as a runnerbeast. Yentl would be skinny with a dull coat, not so pretty now, Amali thought. All she earned for herself from her little fantasy was an if-looks-could-kill glance from Yanus and a double-take from T'jax.

At last T'jax spoke with a hint of desperation in his voice, "There is but one lady here who is fit enough to grace the Hatching Ground at Benden Weyr. And that is that one there," he pointed and heard Yanus gasp, all eyes turned to Amali. T'jax couldn't help but add under his breath that he wished there were more girls that were suitable candidates because he was desperate to find someone. He had been on Search for six sevendays and what did he have to show for his efforts: nothing.

Immediately Yanus took his anger out on the unfortunate girls who were left, "All of you, get back to work. I will not have idle hands in my sea hold." The girls scurried off to do his bidding as he turned to Amali, "Amali, go get --"

"NO!" T'jax spoke quite suddenly, Amali glanced at T'jax and saw the panic that was welling up in his eyes, "Meldith says that the eggs are beginning to hatch. We must get back to the Weyr! Quickly!" T'jax leapt aboard the bronze and held out his hand for Amali to use to climb up Meldith. The dragon went into a semi-crouch and sprang up into the air.

"Meldith, take us back the Weyr before the Hatching began. Amali, we are going to go _between_. You will feel nothing and it will be very cold. It will only last three heartbeats, but it feels like a lifetime. Hang on and we will be there shortly." With that T'jax gave Meldith the signal to go _between_.

They emerged over Benden Weyr. Amali gave Benden a private pat on the back for always being there for Half Circle during Threadfall. Amali sifted back through memories of fright and dread while sitting safe within the hold during Threadfall. The scourge of the land that came from the dreaded Red Star that loomed over Pern like a hawk, waiting to drop its cargo of life eating spores that were commonly called Thread, so named for the way that it fell onto Pern. The Weyr sparkled and radiated with heat waves from the ever-hot Hatching Ground's sands that were heated from the volcano that Benden lay on. Benden lay in the mountains of northern Pern and were everlasting cold to Amali who came from the south of Pern near Nerat. As the bowl of the Weyr drew closer and closer, so did her fear and doubts. She sensed some hostility from the Wingleader. She could not understand why though, hadn't she saved him from humiliation from the other wingleaders? She did not understand, but something deep inside that didn't even feel natural kept telling her it was going to be alright. Was she going mad, she thought? The voice reassured her that she was definitely not going mad, she thought she heard a bit of a chuckle from the voice, but she was to busy hanging on to T'jax as hard as she could to pay much attention. Amali was astonished, she had never seen the Weyr before, and it was so big. And they were still very high up in the air. Meldith flew down to the Hatching Ground and deposited Amali with the other girls and flew away up to the tiers.

The dragons started thrumming and the candidates were marched into the Hatching Ground. The sands were scorching beneath Amali's bare feet as she tip-toed across, the dragons thrumming was beginning to get annoying. The girls formed a loose semi-circle around the gently rocking golden queen egg and waited.

From her place in the semi-circle Amali could see the rest of the clutch. They were all rocking violently when, without warning, one of the eggs cracked and the inmate stumbled out. It was a bronze and it instantly started looking from its weyrmate. The crowd smiled and whispered among itself: a bronze, a good omen, a very good omen indeed.

Amali tried to keep her attention on the rocking golden egg before her, but her gaze kept wandering to the bronze that was still wandering around, looking. She could not help but wonder why he had not found a boy to be his forever weyrmate. Creeling with hunger and fright, it crawled and shuffled around the circle of candidates while its clutchmates found their partners among the boys.

The queen egg began to rock more violently than before. It suddenly cracked and a golden creature fell out. Dripping and confused, the little dragon pushed her way around the girls, stopping to look at Amali for only a moment. At last she found her girl, the girl looked only to be 12 Turns old. The girl's face lit up then turned to the others girls, crying, and said the queen's name was Cynth. Impression had been made.

Amali felt red-hot tears of shame drip down her face; she had been rejected. She turned away, angrily brushing away the tears, and saw that the first dragon had still not Impressed. He stumbled around on the hot sands, looking for his partner among the remaining candidates. He just couldn't find the right boy.

A brown dragon glided down to escort the rejected queen candidates out of the bowl when Amali cried out.

"Isn't someone going to help him? He needs to be Impressed!" she made little shooing motions towards to male candidates. The little bronze, upon hearing her voice, had started creeling and turned towards her and was vainly trying to get to her. She continued, "Go on, there are boys out there who want you."

The hatchling's still-wet wings got caught in the sands. Amali crouched down to help him when his whirling eyes locked on hers. Her face lit up as if a thousand glows had been lighted.

"His name is Keth!" Never again would she be alone, forgotten until she was needed. Was she supposed to Impress a bronze, she thought frantically, what if they threw her out?

_Why would they do that? You were meant for me, Keth, bronze dragon. I will always be there for you. We will be together forever. I chose you to be mine. I love you._

"No!" screamed one of the un-Impressed boys as he ran toward the pair, "NO! It's mine! I saw it first! I saw it first! I want it! You're not supposed to get a bronze! You were rejected by the queen! Go Impress a green! I want it! It's mine! It's mine!" Keth raised his soppy wings and hissed warningly at the boy who dared threaten his new weyrmate. A blue rider came up and half-carried half-dragged the still-screaming boy out of the Hatching Ground.

"Wait!" Amali called. She walked over to the boy and he was forced to look straight into the twin pools of pure hatred as she said. "_His_ name is Keth."

"Come on, you two, knock it off," only the Weyrlingmaster's timely intervention saved the boy from intense suffering at the hands of the infuriated Amali. The new partnership was met with dirty looks and hate glances from the rejected male candidates. However, they did not notice, for they were one.

After the feast and up in the Queen's Weyr the golden Ramoth was getting ready to sleep while her partner Lessa was discussing with the Benden Weyrleader, F'lar, what to do about the unlikely new pair. The Weyrleaders were perplexed, such a thing had never happened before. There had been a similar case where a weyrgirl had Impressed a green, but this is an entirely different matter.

"What can we do?" Lessa wondered absentmindedly.

"The only thing we can do. We must accept them as they are. It is not the girl's fault. She was flown in right before the Hatching began, so T'jax told me," F'lar commented. He privately wondered if that was actually going to be possible and simple.

_Of course it is. It is no different than the Impression of white Ruth and green Path. Keth and Amali will be fine. _ F'lar's bronze, Mnementh, told him.

"Oh, right. Simple," F'lar feigned lightheartedness, but the matter prayed heavily on his mind. He fleetingly wondered why Mnementh put the rider's name in there. Dragons almost never inserted the rider's name in their thoughts.

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Amali stood out on the ledge and looked up to see the sign that said to all that this weyr was owned by Amali and bronze dragon Keth. It was designed by them both and the symbol for a bronze dragon, bronze star, in the center and was ringed by the maroon and gold bands of Half-Circle Sea Hold. This symbol is common, so to personalize it Amali made lattice work of the bands, saying that this weyr was occupied by a girl and a dragon. The lattice work was what made the crest above the queens' weyrs so special. Amali looked down to the Hunting Ground to see Keth bringing down his second wherry, or was that his third? She held back a sigh as she remembered to conference she had had with the Weyrleaders that previous afternoon.

Her cheeks burned at the very remembrance of having to leave right in the middle of class, everyone had been whispering that she had been called out to be punished. But in reality F'lar and Lessa had wanted to talk to her and Keth about Keth's monstrous appetite. It seemed to the Weyrleaders that Keth had been eating twice as much as the rest of the weyrlings. Amali and Keth apologized profusely, but the Weyrleaders were not condemning them. Lessa had said that was a good sign, but Keth shouldn't over do it. F'lar had added that a big appetite when you're a weyrling means you will be a big dragon, and that is a good thing.

Amali came back to the here and now when Keth landed smack dab in front of her. He brought his wedge-shaped head down to hers and Amali was intimidated and a bit frightened by his head, which was not full grown, that was taller than she was.

He was complaining, _I itch_.

"Oh, my darling Keth! I have been neglecting you! I'm sorry." Tears ran down her burning cheeks as she turned away to hide from her partner. Ashamed of her carelessness, she leaped up onto Keth and directed him over to the lake that served as a bath for the immense dragons that lived at Benden Weyr.

_Why do you cry, Amali? I love you. You have not been neglecting me. I love you. You cannot neglect me. I love you, do not cry_. He tried to calm her down.

Amali wiped her cheeks dry as they neared the lake, it would not do to have the other werylings to see her cry. She was not a baby, she thought fiercely.

Keth caught her thought, _of course you are not_. He waddled into the lake at Amali's insistence as she called to the fire-lizards that were sunning on a ledge to come help her scrub Keth.

The fire-lizards were the reptiles from which dragons were bred, so many centuries ago when Thread first ravaged Pern. The ancients bred the arm-sized lizards into house-sized "dragons" that were named so because of their resemblance to the mythical Earth creatures.

Keth abruptly bulged as Mnementh and Ramoth sprang off their weyr ledges and started spiraling down towards the lake by Amali and Keth.

"F'lar, Lessa," Amali stammered out the required greeting while her mind worked a mile a minute at figuring out why the Weyrleaders has chosen this exact time to give their dragons a bath.

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_Why do they tell you how to fly? I am the one who does the fighting. I do the transferring_ between. Keth asked of Amali during flying class

_You won't even remember come tomorrow what we learned today. So why bother_? Amali replied mentally

_Why can't other dragons remember? I certainly can._

_Yeah right. O.K. Whatever. Alright, like, what did we learn yesterday, smart guy_?

_ Well duh. We learned how to recognize landmarks for flying_ between.

_How do you remember? No other dragon can_. Amali tried to put as much confusion as she could into her thought.

_Ruth can_. Keth smart-mouthed back.

_Ruth is a white dragon_, she said, putting emphasis on white.

_So? What does the color of his hide have to do with if he can remember or not? I can remember many things. Like how the Weyrleaders were mad at us when I first hatched. And how difficult it was for us to fit in with the other weyrlings. How the other pairs have ignored us since even the Hatching. And what about the time that you went into the basements of the weyr? That's against the rules, you know._

_How do you know about that_? She blurted, almost voicing her thoughts in her haste to ask Keth.

_I know about everything you do_.

_Well... Uh... Um... Never mind. Now listen, Ruth is the only white dragon that is, was, and ever will be. He is unique_.

_Like us, we are unique, too. You told me yourself that there has never been a girl that has Impressed a bronze dragon. We are unsurpassed. And so is green Path._

_That is a totally different case! Mirrim was a weyrgirl who just happened to Impress! She could've influenced Path in the egg for all we know! I am only a lowly sea-hold girl! I wasn't even supposed to Impress Cynth! T'jax just needed someone to bring back! I am not worthy of you_! Desperation was creeping into her voice as her held-back sobs were wracking her body as she released her pent-up frustration that had built up over a Turn of rejection by the other pairs.

_I am sorry. I have upset you. You must not think like that. We were meant for each other. No one can deny that, I found no suitable boy on the Hatching Ground. I only wanted you, my precious Amali. And I want you now, too._ Concern evident in his mental tone.

"Are you two done with this conversation so we can get on with class?" the Weyrlingmaster's irritated voice penetrated their thoughts. Amali gave a little squeak and jumped, and stared up at the faces looking at her. The whole class had known about her conversation with Keth!

Rude jeering met her ears from all over the room, the Weyrlingmaster was vainly trying to shush them.

"Oh, is the poor girl crying?"

"Lookit, she's so sad."

"Poor Amali."

"Is everything going to be alright, my precious Amali?"

How dare he, that boy, using her darling Keth's cherished words against her, she thought, her face turning scarlet red. She ran, crying, from the room in shame and torture. Keth creeled and looked questionably at the Weyrlingmaster. He nodded and Keth flew off to find Amali amidst the teasing and jeers which were now aimed at him.

Keth found Amali in their weyr. Although he did not know how she got up to their high weyr, he could only guess by the scrapes and scratches on her hands that she had climbed up.

He tried to comfort her, though all was in vain. _Why did you run off? What if I had needed you? I felt so alone..._

"I was with you, Keth. I will always be with you," she hesitated, wiped her tears away and stood up determinedly. After Amali had gotten up to the weyr, she had spent the time thinking about the reasons why she and Keth were ignored. She had come up with only one reason: they were different, strange, inexplicable, and alien. She thought that was a very poor excuse to ignore someone and she had decided that she would not take it anymore. Keth sensed that Amali had enough of the ignorance and the refusal to change from the other weyrboys. He also felt that Amali had somehow changed in the few minutes that they were apart, but he could not but his claw on it. She spoke, "I will not let their jeers get to me again, my bronze. I will not let their teasing influence me. When we are together, nothing can stop us from achieving our goals!"

_Now, that is the Amali I chose on the Hatching Ground. Let's go back and let them know we are no afraid to do what we have a right to._

The Weyrlingmaster was instructing the weyrlings on how best to give their dragons firestone when Amali and Keth showed up. They walked right up to their seats and sat/stood. Amali nodded to the master to proceed amongst the jeers that broke out again. He kept right on teaching.


End file.
